Arts & Ideas Podcast
Leading thinkers discuss the ideas shaping our lives – looking back at the news and making links between past and present. Broadcast as Free Thinking, Fridays at 9pm on BBC Radio 4. Presented by Matthew Sweet, Shahidha Bari and Anne McElvoy.
Episodes to download
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Nadifa Mohamed, Gentle/Radical, Dylan Thomas
Tue 15 Jun 2021
The work of Turner Prize nominees, a Tiger Bay murder story, Under Milk Wood on stage
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How anthropology helps us understand the world
Fri 11 Jun 2021
Economist Gillian Tett is one of Anne McElvoy's guests.
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How anthropology helps us understand the world
Fri 11 Jun 2021
Economist Gillian Tett is one of Anne McElvoy's guests.
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Green Thinking: Hot Money
Thu 10 Jun 2021
Bitcoin, investment bonds and how to make finance greener.
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Beryl Vertue
Wed 9 Jun 2021
Matthew Sweet meets the Sherlock producer and ex agent of Tony Hancock who has turned 90
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Women's Art
Tue 8 Jun 2021
Jennifer Higgie, Adjoa Osei, Veronica Ryan, and Lydia Yee talk to Shahidha Bari
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Green Thinking: Seascapes and Blue Gold
Tue 8 Jun 2021
How will Climate Change impact the ocean and our relationship with it?
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Green Thinking: Climate and Conflict
Sat 5 Jun 2021
Is global warming increasingly to blame for conflict and disputes over land and resources?
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Green Thinking: Future of Work
Fri 4 Jun 2021
The future of work in a post-Covid-19 world and the implications for our environment.
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Green Thinking: Can artists help save the planet?
Thu 3 Jun 2021
From ice photos by Wayne Binitie to 140 ideas from artists collated by Hans Ulrich Obrist
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Alice and Dreaming
Wed 2 Jun 2021
Alice is asked in Wonderland, Why is a raven like a writing desk? Salman Rushdie explains
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New Thinking: The Botanical Past
Tue 1 Jun 2021
From still life paintings to Kew Gardens, a new history of horticulture is being written
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Fashion, Art, and the Body
Wed 26 May 2021
Olivia Laing, Charlie Porter, and Ekow Eshun join Shahidha Bari
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Novelist Tahmima Anam plus was Nero a ruthless tyrant?
Tue 25 May 2021
Was Nero really a victim of plots? Bulgaria's hidden past. Plus a novel about startups.
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Who needs critics?
Thu 20 May 2021
Matthew Sweet questions the critic's role while Vid Simoniti looks at algorithms and art.
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Ghosts of the Spanish civil war
Wed 19 May 2021
Breaking the silence: filmmakers, a novelist and historian on the recent Spanish past.
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The Wolfson History Prize 2021
Tue 18 May 2021
Rana Mitter meets the six authors shortlisted for the UK's most prestigious history prize
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Lost cities, 20s divas and 2011 uprisings
Thu 13 May 2021
Anne McElvoy explores the past and present of the transcontinental nation of Egypt
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New Thinking: Archiving, curating and digging for data
Wed 12 May 2021
Lisa Mullen explores the way data can change our view of history & looks at conservation.
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Marlon James and Neil Gaiman
Tue 11 May 2021
The two weavers of fantastical fiction sift through myths with Matthew Sweet.
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Alison Bechdel
Thu 6 May 2021
American graphic novelist Alison Bechdel talks mushrooms, therapy and Adrienne Rich
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Napoleon the gardener and art thief
Wed 5 May 2021
Ruth Scurr, Emma Rothschild and Natasha Pulley look at French history with Rana Mitter
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Samuel Johnson's circle
Tue 4 May 2021
Patience Agbabi's novel time travels back to eighteenth century London - so do we
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Northern Ireland
Thu 29 Apr 2021
Anne McElvoy marks the 1921 creation of Northern Ireland with historians and writers
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New Generation Thinkers: A Norwegian Morality Tale
Thu 29 Apr 2021
Lucy Weir learns dark lessons from newspaper coverage of Black Metal and satanic rituals
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New Generation Thinkers: Beyond the betting shop
Wed 28 Apr 2021
Darragh McGee considers the history of gambling from 18th century card games to apps
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Links between Judaism and Christianity
Wed 28 Apr 2021
Rector Giles Fraser tells Matthew Sweet how a crisis led to discovering his Jewish roots
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Epistemic Injustice
Tue 27 Apr 2021
Shahidha Bari investigates how theory of knowledge can address real world problems
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New Generation Thinkers: Colonial Papers
Tue 27 Apr 2021
Alexandra Reza's Essay considers the Gilet Noirs, Ousmane Sembène, and Nathalie Quintane
